2025 Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List Announced

Today, USA Baseball announced the 2025 Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List. Each year, the Golden Spikes Award honors the top amateur in the nation. The award has been around since 1978 and is given to the player who shows incredible skills and sportsmanship on the field.

This year’s preseason watchlist included 55 high school and college baseball players. There were 41 total schools and 12 conferences represented. At the college level, the SEC led the pack with 17 players. The ACC came in second with 14. The Big 12 had six players, and the Big Ten had three.

Overall, out of all college players, Arizona State (Compton, Walker, and Jacobs), Texas A&M (LaViolette, Prager, Grahovac), and Virginia (Blanco, Ford, and Didawick) led teams with the most players on the list with three players each.

There is also tons of talent on this list for the 2025 MLB Draft. For college, 27 players are on the Just Baseball Top 80 College Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Out of the college talent, four were named as Golden Spikes Award finalists in 2024.

Three of them are top prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft: Jamie Arnold, Brooks Bryan, and Jace LaViolette. Weihwa Aloy, Cam Cannarella, Ethan Petry, Nolan Schubart, and Devin Taylor were also on last year’s preseason watch list. Here are the 33 players on our Draft board:

RANK	PLAYER	POSITION	TEAM
1	Jace LaViolette	OF	Texas A&M
2	Jamie Arnold	LHP	Florida State
3	Tyler Bremner	RHP	UCSB
4	Cam Cannarella	OF	Clemson
5	Aiva Arquette	SS/3B	Oregon State
6	Brendan Summerhill	OF	Arizona
7	Ike Irish	C/OF	Auburn
8	Luke Stevenson	C	North Carolina
9	Devin Taylor	OF	Indiana
10	Dean Curley	SS/3B	Tennessee
11	Ethan Conrad	OF	Wake Forest
12	Caden Bodine	C	Coastal Carolina
14	Marek Houston	SS	Wake Forest
15	Henry Ford	1B/OF	Virginia
19	RJ Austin	OF	Vanderbilt
20	Kyson Witherspoon	RHP	Oklahoma
21	Nick Dumesnil	OF	Cal Baptist
24	Max Belyeu	OF	Texas
26	Wehiwa Aloy	SS	Arkansas
27	Kolten Smith	RHP	Georgia
28	Tre Phelps III	3B	Georgia
31	Ben Jacobs	LHP	Arizona State
32	Nolan Schubart	1B/OF	Oklahoma State
33	Gavin Turley	OF	Oregon State
34	Jalin Flores	SS/3B	Texas
35	Brooks Bryan	C	Troy
36	Ethan Petry	1B/OF	South Carolina
44	Easton Carmichael	C	Oklahoma
48	Ryan Prager	LHP	Texas A&M
53	Brandon Compton	1B/OF	Arizona State
59	Tanner Thach	1B	UNC-Wilmington
70	Ben Abeldt	LHP	Texas Christian
72	Anthony Martinez	1B	UC Irvine

The High School talent on the Golden Spikes Watch List also has some names on the Just Baseball Top 80 High School Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft list, headlined by Ethan Holliday.

Ethan is the younger brother of Jackson Holliday and the son of Matt Holliday. Ethan Holliday, Seth Hernandez, and Kayson Cunningham join five players from non-NCAA Division I schools on the preseason watch list. The other two are Eric Colaco (Denison – DIII) and Dennis Pierce (East Stroudsburg – DII).

RANK	PLAYERS	POSITION	SCHOOL
3	Ethan Holliday	3B	Stillwater HS (OK)
4	Seth Hernandez	RHP	Corona HS (CA)
6	Kayson Cunningham	SS	Johnson HS (TX)

USA Baseball noted that fan voting will again participate in the Golden Spikes Award in 2025. They also mentioned that the mid-season watch list will be announced on April 3rd, and the semifinalists will be announced on May 18th.